Disturbia

Young Kale (Shia LaBeouf), after dealing with the accidental death of his father, is going through a difficult time; feeling lifeless and down he manages to punch his Spanish teacher just before summer break starts. With charges pressed, Kale is sentenced to three months house arrest. After mom (Carrie-Anne Moss) turns off his Xbox Live subscription and all of his other fun outlets, he’s left with nothing much to do. As the boredom sets in he begins to invent games to occupy his time and soon he has taken to watching the neighbors. All is well as he watches his new neighbor Ashley (Sarah Roemer) swimming; that is until he catches on the weird antics of the quiet neighbor down the street, Mr. Turner (David Morse). Is Mr. Turner as demented as Kale seems to think, or is this just a product of his over active imagination?

When the trailers first landed for Disturbia, I was filled with instant dismissal. This is just a remake of Rear Window and they’re not even giving credit where credit is due! But, just as I always do I eventually became curious as positive word started to trickle out. After all, Rear Window was great, I wonder how a modern spin would change it. It was with this in mind that I settled in for a watch. Happily, I wasn’t too disappointed.

In reality there’s not a whole lot here to differentiate the new from the old. There’s more modern gadgetry, a little more gruesome in the antagonist. The underlying plot though is pretty much the same. (Although no broken bones this time around) What makes this an enjoyable watch is the performances turned in by LaBeouf and Morse. In LaBeouf we exchange Jimmy Stewart for your typical teenager. The general teen angst turning to curiosity and in turn fear, all flows naturally as you find yourself drawn into the character of Kale. In turn Morse gradually turns up the evil as the film progresses. Starting out you catch brief glimpses that indicates he may be a little odd, but nothing to fear. When he hits you with his first dead pan evil glare, you sit up a bit and take notice. When he climbs into Ashley’s car in the parking garage he graduates to full out creepy, and for the rest of the ride he continues to turn it up more and more.

As I plod my way through the review it strikes me that Disturbia is one of those films that are neither mind blowingly good, nor is it mind numbingly bad. The tension builds nicely throughout and never does the plot cross into implausible. Certainly, this is a modern horror flick that stays away from most of the clichés and other claptrap that hinder most of today’s horror attempts; and I think that is what makes Disturbia a movie worth the time. While it is a remake, it’s new enough from the movies coming out around it that it stands out. No choppy MTV camera cuts, no misplaced metal in the soundtrack; just a good old fashioned character driven story to be told.

Morse adds to this as well as he is the man next door with a dark side. He’ll make you think twice about Old Man Jenkins down the street.

4 Shia LaBeouf’s not too bad of an actor after all’s out of 5